{"id":462052,"date":"2026-05-22T17:06:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T17:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/462052\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T17:06:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T17:06:09","slug":"rte-journalist-with-huge-sense-of-self-importance-fails-in-bid-for-higher-pay-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/462052\/","title":{"rendered":"RT\u00c9 journalist with \u2018huge sense of self-importance\u2019 fails in bid for higher pay \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

An RT\u00c9<\/a> journalist described as someone with an \u201cextraordinary sense of entitlement and a huge sense of self-importance\u201d has failed in a bid to be reclassified at a higher grade and secure additional compensation for his work on a project.<\/p>\n

The Labour Court<\/a> has upheld a recommendation by the Workplace Relations Commission<\/a> (WRC) last year dismissing the multimedia journalist\u2019s two claims under the Industrial Relations Act.<\/p>\n

In his WRC ruling in January 2025 adjudicator Breiffni O\u2019Neill recommended that the worker carefully reflect on his analysis and accept he has been compensated more than appropriately for the project on which he was engaged and he is employed at the appropriate grade, for which he is also well compensated.<\/p>\n

In the decision, O\u2019Neill wrote: \u201cIt is clear that the worker in the instant dispute has an extraordinary sense of entitlement and a huge sense of self-importance, both in respect of the work he did on the project and the work he does as a multimedia journalist.\u201d<\/p>\n

The journalist appealed O\u2019Neill\u2019s ruling to the Labour Court. As part of his appeal, he provided the court with a detailed submission running to 25 pages and 164 paragraphs.<\/p>\n

The worker, who is not named, earned \u20ac84,630 a year as a multimedia journalist at the time of the WRC hearing.<\/p>\n

He claimed he was entitled to additional compensation for a project he was engaged on between 2010 and 2012 known as the CND project. He also claimed his current grade of multimedia journalist does not reflect the work he is currently doing and that he should be reclassified to a higher grade of newscaster.<\/p>\n

However, in findings following a hearing on April 10th, Labour Court chairwoman Louise O\u2019Donnell referred to the time it took before the journalist sought additional compensation in 2022 for the CND project.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Donnell stated, in circumstances where it took the worker 10 years after the event to raise an issue, \u201cthis does not in the court\u2019s view meet the criteria of a dispute requiring the court\u2019s input\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, in the interest of clarity, the court\u2019s decision is that it finds no merit in this claim,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

In relation to the journalist\u2019s second claim for regrading, he was seeking to be paid on the newscaster grade on the basis that he had been carrying out duties that would warrant same since 2018. <\/p>\n

On what O\u2019Donnell described as the worker\u2019s de facto regrading claim, she said the worker had the support of his trade union while processing his claim through the internal grievance procedure and, other than not agreeing with the outcome, the worker raised no issue with the process followed. <\/p>\n

O\u2019Donnell said the court noted RT\u00c9\u2019s position that newscaster roles are advertised and competed for and that the skill set required is different from that of a radio news reader. <\/p>\n

She stated it was therefore open to the worker to compete for such a post if he wished. <\/p>\n

\u201cTaking all of the above into account the court does not recommend concession of this claim,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An RT\u00c9 journalist described as someone with an \u201cextraordinary sense of entitlement and a huge sense of self-importance\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":462053,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,42042,43,6085,40,38,41,39,6465],"class_list":["post-462052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-labour-court","tag-news","tag-rte","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-workplace-relations-commission"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=462052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462052\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/462053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}